


heroes need heroes too

by chenrydanger



Category: Henry Danger (TV)
Genre: Gen, angsty, ok idk what else to say bye, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-20 22:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21289556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chenrydanger/pseuds/chenrydanger
Summary: Sometimes even heroes could use a fair share of saving, too.
Relationships: Charlotte Bolton & Henry Hart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 73





	heroes need heroes too

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNING: The subject of this one-shot may be unsuitable for some readers, but to avoid spoilers, I will not be providing a specific trigger warning before the story. If you would like to check the trigger warning before reading, see the notes at the end first! Thank you and enjoy!

Charlotte starts taking the subway to work on the weekends midway through senior year. 

With Piper joining the team, the Man Cave has started to get a bit too crowded for her taste. She loves the girl to death, of course, but between her and Jasper and Ray and Schwoz; even Henry, really, the chaotic energy is a bit too much for her lawful side to handle. So she starts working another job at a boutique in downtown Swellview, partly because it gives her time away from the same old crew, and partly because it gives her an outlet for her interest in fashion.

And for some reason, she doesn’t tell the rest of the gang about it. It’s the one thing she has that can be _ just hers_. She likes it that way.

So on Saturday, like she has been doing every weekend for about a month now, Charlotte descends into the abyss that is Swellview’s old, decrepit subway system to wait for the train into the city.

There isn’t usually anyone else at the stop. It’s part of why she likes it, because she can sit on the bench and take out her book and not feel like the weird, pretentious, I’m-going-to-read-in-public-now-because-I’m-better-than-you girl. It’s silly, but it’s true. And she’s thankful for any chance to avoid that.

Being all alone in a dark, musky, underground station used to freak her out a little, but now it’s just kind of peaceful. She sighs, puts one earbud in, and loses herself in her book.

The earbud thing is somewhat of a ritual, perhaps. She has to leave one earbud out so she can hear the train when it approaches. That’s how lost she’ll get in a story. But even with the other earbud hanging in her lap, it’s a wonder she ever notices anything going on around her. She mostly doesn’t, to be honest — like the subway rats scurrying between the rails or the announcements over the speaker when a particular line is on delay. As far as Charlotte’s concerned, there’s only her and her book and that’s it.

So it’s truly unbelievable, then, that she registers the sound of someone descending the stairs, way on the other end of the platform. She doesn’t look up, though, because this part of her book is really good, and they sound far enough away that they likely won’t bother her. They probably can’t even see her. It’s pretty dark, and there’s a huge cinder block column that mostly blocks the view from the other side.

But then for some reason, her hand fails her. Her muscle spasms and she drops her book. Boom. She snaps out of her trance. With an eye roll, she leans forward to pick it up, past the obscurity of the cinder block column, and by some stroke of chance looks over to her left to see...

Kid Danger?

He’s standing at the platform edge and staring down the dark tunnel opposite of where she is. What is Henry doing in the subway? Why is he in costume without Ray?_ He's not following me, is he? _

She’s suspicious now, so she sneaks behind the column for protection and tiptoes around it. Now, from where she’s standing far behind him, there’s no way he’ll see her unless he turns around.

He’s standing awfully close to the edge.

Then comes the sound. First, it’s the piercing screech of wheels against metal tracks, then, the warning bellow of the train as it pulls into the station. Charlotte’s eyebrows furrow together. _ Is Henry waiting for the train? He’s so close to the edge… _

She finds herself tiptoeing closer, and with each measure of distance that closes between them, her tiny steps get bigger. She’s not sure why, but it feels like someone reached into her chest and yanked her heart up into her throat. The train is coming; charging forward. Her heart is pounding. What is she doing? What is he doing? _ Why is he standing so close to the edge— _

She has no idea when this happens. It feels faster than time. One moment she’s standing there, frozen in horror as the subway’s light creeps up the tracks and she sees Henry lift a foot as if to take a step. The next second, a blast of wind from the train slams against her like a brick wall as the locomotive whizzes by.

Somehow, she managed to grab him and pull him back just in time. She can’t even remember doing it.

She could throw up.

A few seconds and the train is gone. But the image of it tearing by her is burned in her brain. And the sinking feeling she gets when she thinks she realizes what Henry was doing… she can’t shake it. It only gets worse with time. What if she wasn’t fast enough? If he had taken that step…?

Every silent second that passes is a reminder of what she’s just witnessed. Her knees shake first, then buckle, and she’s on the floor. She hears the sound of his boots against the tile as he finally turns around, and he says, “Charlotte…” Loud sobs rack her body and echo through the hollow underground, and for whatever reason, he's the one holding her; he's the one drying her tears.

“Stop.” She’s objecting between hiccups and heaving sobs, tears flooding down her cheeks. With every tear that falls, he tries to wipe them away, and she tries to dodge it. She can’t, she can’t believe he’s doing this right now when he was the one who almost… who almost…

“Stop!” She pushes him away, hard this time. “Fucking hell, Henry. What the fuck? What the fuck did you think you were doing?”

She knows she’s not saying the right things. She’s not supposed to be yelling at him. She’s supposed to be comforting him. She’s supposed to be wiping _ his _ tears, but goddamnit, she just came incredibly close to watching her best friend, what, die? In front of her? She’s not using any of what she learned in the SADD group at school. None of the de-escalation methods or words of wisdom are coming to mind. But no one teaches you what to do when the person you almost lost is your best friend.

“They were gonna hurt you, Char.” His voice is tight. She sucks in a breath when she hears it. He sounds so different, so off that it makes her force herself to look him in the eyes. They’re red. He’s going to start crying too, or at least he would. Except he’s trying to be strong. She can tell he’s trying not to cry because the veins in his neck are strained tense. She wants to push him away again, but she wants to hold him even more.

She does neither. Maybe the two cancel each other out.

“They were gonna hurt you,” he says again when she doesn’t answer, and hastily looks away. “They knew that if they took you I’d be powerless to stop them. They knew I’d do anything to keep you safe and alive, so they threatened to take you hostage, and Charlotte, I was _ so fucking scared _ of what they might do to you. I can’t let you get hurt because of me, I can’t—”

“So…” She takes a long, shaky breath and ignores the millions of burning questions she has, such as _ who are ‘they’ _ and _ when did this happen? _ “You decided to…”

“No… I dunno.” His mouth opens and closes. “I came here just to see. I didn’t know if I could do it. I didn’t think I would. B-but… I heard the train coming. And I closed my eyes,” he closes his eyes again now as he says it, “and I saw them doing awful things to you, and I couldn’t let myself live and put you in danger anymore. I’m putting everyone I love in danger.”

Tears stream out from his closed eyes and she wraps herself around him as best she can when he’s so much taller and broader than she is. He wraps his arms around her in return. “I’m sorry, Charlotte.” It’s a whisper, muffled by his tears and his face against her shoulder. 

“Henry.” She pulls away from him and looks at his tear-stained cheeks. Her heart lurches. There are so many thoughts begging to race her mind but a cold numbness is censoring them all. Only one thing is able to cross her mind.

“Please, Henry. I need you to promise me you won’t make a… a decision like that. Ever.”

His eyes flutter and he looks away, eyebrows knit together. It’s killing her to see him like this. It’s eating her alive. She’s realizing with a heavy heart that she’s never taken the time to make sure he’s okay because it always seems like he is. But now it only makes sense to her that someone who spends all day worrying about saving everyone around them can most definitely use some saving once in a while, too. 

Her best friend. Her happy-go-lucky, lanky blond geek of a best friend. Her best friend, who has maybe _ the best _ brown eyes she’s ever seen. She needs to see them. She takes his face in her hand. Makes him look at her. It almost surprises her even now, even after countless years of being attached at the hip, just how much she loves him. More than life itself, probably. 

“I need you to promise me that we’re in this together.” She swallows hard. “Always. Yeah?”

He’s silent for a while and she holds her breath. What the hell does she say? What does she say, what does she say, what does she…

“Yeah,” he whispers in return. It’s quiet, but she’s listening so hard that it’s deafening.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out in relief; relief that she’s not even sure is warranted, but desperately hopes is so.

“I don’t know what the hell I’d do without you, Hen.” She searches his eyes for something, anything that’ll let her know that this was a one-time blunder, a crazy nightmare that she can wake up from. 

He nods and lets his lips turn up into a small smile. She can tell that he thinks she’s only saying it because she has to. She’s never seen him look this broken. 

But as for her, she too has been broken before. When she didn’t get into the LIMP program, when she took second yet another year at the Gizmo Show, when she lost her dad… she’s been broken countless times before and it’s the boy before her who helped her find herself again. Every time.

She stands and reaches out to help him up. “Let’s go.”

She wants to say that she’ll help him find the sick fucks he was talking about if it takes forever, or that she’d rather him protect himself than sacrifice himself for her, or any other number of completely true confessions that she wishes he knew. But instead, she holds out her hand and says, “We can have a sleepover, and invite Jasper too. And we’ll all squeeze in your bed. That way you’ll know we’re safe.”

He nods. This time the smile is accompanied by fuller cheeks and raised eyebrows. It’s a real smile. Charlotte would know it anywhere. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s go.”

He takes her hand and pulls himself up. She squeezes it in hers, partly to assure him, and partly to assure herself that he’s still there. Still warm. Still alive.

“Together,” she says, and leads him to the exit. He lags behind such that their arms outstretch and she can feel the tug of his weight behind her before he follows her to the steps.

“Together.”

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Suicide Attempt
> 
> I want to say a few things here; the first is that I got teary-eyed a few times while writing this. Something nice about being a fan of the show is that it’s mostly really light and happy, and therefore what constitutes as angst for us is also usually pretty tolerable, but this is definitely the darkest thing I’ve written for this fandom and taking these characters to this sort of place was a weird and sometimes kind of painful feeling. 
> 
> For that reason, I was also a little scared that when you guys read this, it’d come across as trying too hard or that I’ve taken it too far. I hope that if that’s the case you’ll still stick around to read other things I write! I have some really great ideas brewing right now and they’re not nearly as sad and dark as this one.
> 
> Thank you for reading. As always, don’t forget to leave kudos and comments (if you want to) ♡
> 
> (And a special shoutout to a very good friend, you know who you are and ily)


End file.
